Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A Rose-Red City by Dave Duncan A Rose-Red City by Dave Duncan. Inregistrat: acum 6 ani Postari: 4801. David Duncan is a Canadian fantasy and science fiction author. He was born in 1933 in Scotland, and educated there at the High School of Dundee and at the University of St Andrews. After graduating in 1955 he moved to Canada where he lived in Calgary, Alberta, and is currently situated on Vancouver Island in Victoria, British Columbia. He has been married since 1959 to his wife, Janet, and currently has one son, two daughters, and four grandchildren. He started writing fantasy novels in 1984 and made his first sale (A Rose Red City) in 1986, at which point he switched to full-time writing, after 31 years as a geologist in the petroleum industry. Although Duncan usually uses his own name, he has written as Ken Hood and also used a female pseudonym Sarah B. Franklin. Dave Duncan - The Reluctant Swordsman (read by Donald Corren) Dave Duncan - The Coming Of Wisdom (read by Donald Corren) Dave Duncan - The Destiny Of The Sword (read by Donald Corren) Dave Duncan - The Death Of Nnanji (read by Victor Bevine) A Man of His Word Series. Dave Duncan - Magic Casement (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - Faery Lands Forlorn (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - Perilous Seas (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - Emperor And Clown (read by Mil Nicholson) A Handful of Men Series. Dave Duncan - The Cutting Edge (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - Upland Outlaws (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - The Stricken Field (read by Mil Nicholson) Dave Duncan - The Living God (read by Mil Nicholson) Great Game Series. Dave Duncan - Past Imperative (read by Mark Ashby) Dave Duncan - Present Tense (read by Mark Ashby) Dave Duncan - Future Indefinite (read by Mark Ashby) The Alchemist Series. Dave Duncan - The Alchemist's Apprentice (read by Victor Bevine) Dave Duncan - The Alchemist's Code (read by Victor Bevine) Dave Duncan - The Alchemist's Pursuit (read by Victor Bevine) Dave Duncan - The Reaver Road (read by Derek Perkins) Dave Duncan - The Hunter's Haunt (read by Derek Perkins) The Years of Longdirk Series. Dave Duncan - Demon Sword (read by Mirron Willis) Dave Duncan - Demon Rider (read by Mirron Willis) Dave Duncan - Demon Knight (read by Mirron Willis) The Brothers Magnus Series. Dave Duncan - Speak To The Devil (read by Victor Bevine) Dave Duncan - When The Saints (read by Victor Bevine) The Starfolk Series. Dave Duncan - King Of Swords (read by Nick Podehl) Dave Duncan - Queen Of Stars (read by Nick Podehl) Enchanter General Series. Dave Duncan - Ironfoot (read by Tim Campbell) Dave Duncan - Trial By Treason (read by Tim Campbell) The King's Blades Series. Dave Duncan - The Gilded Chain (read by Austin Vanfleet) Dave Duncan - A Rose-Red City (read by Christian Rummel) Dave Duncan - The Eye Of Strife (read by Anthony Lee) Dave Duncan - Against The Light (read by Ralph Lister) Dave Duncan - Ill Met In The Arena (read by Peter Ganim) Dave Duncan - The Cursed (read by Madelyn Buzzard) Creator / Dave Duncan. David John Duncan (born 30 June 1933) was a Canadian writer of fantasy and occasional "soft" Science Fiction. He was born in 1933 in Scotland. After graduating from the university he moved to Canada where he worked as a petroleum geologist. He started writing fantasy in 1984 and first published his novel A Rose Red City in 1986, after which he became a full-time writer. He published most of his works as Dave Duncan, though he also used pen names Ken Hood and Sarah B. Franklin. Duncan's novels usually feature a lot of World Building. He tended to take well-established genre conventions and twist them beyond recognition without actually deconstructing them. Also expect Chessmasters and Manipulative Bastards. In fantasy settings there's likely to be a Decadent Court, especially if there's more than a single court. In SF there would be plenty of Corrupt Corporate Executives, though honest ones aren't impossible too. Despite that Duncan's novels are more on the idealism than cynicism side and the heroes are, well. heroic. More often than not. Review: “A Rose Red City” By Dave Duncan (Novel) Well, it’s been a while since I last read a novel from the 1980s. So, I thought that I’d take a look at Dave Duncan’s 1987 novel “A Rose Red City” today. This was a novel that I rediscovered whilst sorting through several of the book piles in my room a week or so earlier. If I remember rightly, I originally found this novel in a second-hand bookshop in Brighton during the late 2000s and bought it because of the wonderfully ’80s cover art. So, let’s take a look at “A Rose Red City”. Needless to say, this review may contain some SPOILERS . This is the 1989 Legend (UK) paperback edition of “A Rose Red City” that I read. The novel begins in the utopian city of Mera, a walled city surrounded by evil demons where people lead eternal lives of joy and leisure. Local librarian Jerry Howard is busy binding a book when his old friend Gervasse visits him with a message from the city’s oracle. Apparently Jerry has been chosen to travel over into our world and rescue a future citizen of Mera. The oracle advises him to take a stout friend with him, so Jerry enlists the help of Killer – a muscular, handsome warrior from Ancient Greece. When they leave Mera, they cross a strange shifting landscape for a while – before eventually finding a mysterious deserted cottage where they decide to stay the night. Meanwhile, a tired woman called Ariadne is driving through the night in America. She is trying to reach the Canadian border with her children before her ex-husband catches her and takes the court’s paternity order into his own hands. However, the border town she is looking for doesn’t seem to exist and, after accidentally wedging the car in a ditch, she decides that it would be best for them to seek shelter in a nearby cottage…… One of the first things that I will say about this novel is that, whilst it isn’t perfect, it’s a fairly interesting mixture of Bangsian fantasy, ancient mythology, suspenseful horror and thrilling drama. Imagine a cross between the light-heartedness of John Kendrick Bangs’ “A House-Boat on the Styx“, the cheesy optimism of the 1990s TV show “Sliders” and both the mythical horror and old-fashionedness of something like Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle’s “Inferno” and this should give you a vague idea of what to expect. Interestingly, whilst this is a fantasy novel about a quest, it is a bit different from the more traditional epic fantasy of Tolkien etc.. And is, instead, more of a story about myths, legends, monsters etc… with occasional magic-based elements. And, although this can make the story a little bit random at times, it is a refreshing change from more traditional epic fantasy. Even so, this story does contain some wonderfully cheesy “Conan The Barbarian”-type scenes involving battles with ancient demons and mythical beasts. Likewise, although this novel mixes both the ordinary world and more fantastical locations, the rural settings in the scenes set in America mean that it isn’t really an “urban fantasy” novel in the modern sense of the term. This brings me on to the novel’s horror elements, which work surprisingly well. Although this isn’t really a horror novel, there is a stand-out scene of suspenseful horror during an early segment of the novel where all of the main characters are trapped in a cottage surrounded by demons, who are trying to both trick them into inviting them in and to drive them insane. This claustrophobic part of the novel works really well and it is vaguely reminiscent of novels like Dennis Wheatley’s “The Devil Rides Out” and ’80s horror movies like “The Evil Dead” too. Likewise, there’s also a fairly suspenseful scene involving a certain well-known maze in ancient Crete, that also contains some good horror elements too. Even so, this novel is more of a fantasy thriller than a horror novel. The novel is also a story about truth, morality, second chances and imperfections. But, whilst the novel does contain a fair amount of nuance and compassion, this element of the story does also come across as somewhat pompous, old-fashioned or patronising at times. Even so, this pompousness also lends the novel a little bit of unintentional comedy because, whilst the author is perfectly happy to include bloody battles, random nudity, disturbing backstories and descriptions of the free love culture of Mera, he seems to have a rather prim aversion to using any four-letter words ( which are often either implied euphemistically or replaced with hilariously old-fashioned phrases like “I really loused up” etc.. ). In terms of the characters, they’re a reasonably interesting bunch of people – all of whom have flaws, tragic backstories and various quirks. The main characters are an unlikely group of people thrown together by circumstance, which allows for a lot of interesting character-based drama. Plus, although the main character ( Jerry ) comes across as a bit stuffy and formal, the other characters ( like Killer, Ariadne and Carlo ) are a bit more interesting. In terms of the writing, this novel’s third-person narration is written in the slightly more formal and descriptive style that you would expect from a novel of this vintage. Whilst this helps to add atmosphere to the story, it can also slow down the pace of the story quite a bit. Even so, Duncan’s writing style is something that you’ll get used to after a while. As for length and pacing, this novel is a bit of a mixed bag. At a gloriously efficient 227 pages in length, this novel is that wonderfully rare thing – a short fantasy novel On the other hand, the focus on utopian locations and suspense in the earlier parts of the story, in addition to the slightly formal writing style, mean that this novel may be a bit more slow-paced than you might expect. Even so, the story does become a bit more fast- paced during some later scenes though In terms of how this thirty-two year old novel has aged, it has aged both brilliantly and terribly. On the one hand, the scenes set in Mera have a wonderfully timeless quality to them and both the story’s horror and thriller elements still remain compelling to this day. Likewise, the story is just as atmospheric today as it probably was in 1987. However, although the slightly formal writing style adds some extra atmosphere, it does sound a little old-fashioned when read today. Likewise, whilst it is really cool that the novel features a heroic bisexual character ( eg: Killer ), the story occasionally takes a slightly sneering and old- fashioned attitude towards this element of him. Whilst this novel certainly isn’t the most narrow-minded 20th century novel I’ve read, it does contain some fairly patronising and dated attitudes during a few brief moments. All in all, whilst this is a reasonably compelling fantasy thriller novel, it is also a bit random, cheesy, slow-paced and old-fashioned at times. If you want a better 1980s fantasy novel about alternative worlds, then read Clive Barker’s “Weaveworld” instead. Still, if you’ve already read “Weaveworld”, if you’re a fan of John Kendrick Bangs, if you want something a bit more random and/or if you just want to read a short fantasy novel, then “A Rose Red City” might be worth reading. If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get three and three-quarters. A Rose-Red City. In this complete collection of the high fantasy Seventh Sword series by Aurora Award–winning author Dave Duncan, Wallie Smith must face a new destiny and save an unfamiliar world from evil forces. The Reluctant Swordsman : Wallie goes to the hospital and wakes up in the body of a barbarian swordsman, accompanied by a voluptuous slave girl and an eccentric priest babbling about the Goddess. When he learns the Goddess needs a swordsman, he reluctantly agrees to set off on her quest. The Coming of Wisdom : Wallie is staring death in the face when the Goddess gives him a new body and the fabled Sapphire Sword in return for being her champion. But Wallie and his weapon quickly find themselves outmatched in a world of high-stakes magic. The Destiny of the Sword : Wallie is entrusted by the presiding goddess with a mission to bring together all the swordsmen to finally defeat the sorcerers and their terrible technology. And while he’s not quite convinced he should oblige, goddesses can be very persuasive . . . Portal of a Thousand Worlds. Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century—an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer Rebellion era—with a spellbinding tale of rebellion, political intrigue, larceny, seduction, shape-shifting, dark magic, and murder. These are troubled years in the Good Land. Ten centuries have passed since the last time the Portal of a Thousand Worlds opened, bringing chaos, upheaval, and radical change to the then- ruling dynasty, and now the mystical gateway is rumored to be on the verge of opening once more. Only the Firstborn—he who has been reincarnated through countless generations and remembers all he has ever learned—knows what the future holds, but he has been imprisoned for refusing to comply with a repressive imperial government’s wishes. Now, those hoping to seize the opportunity for wealth and position are hatching sinister plots. And as the cold-hearted dowager empress closely guards a fateful secret, and a rebel army led by a fanatical zealot gathers strength under the Bamboo Banner, the cataclysm approaches. . . . The recipient of two Aurora Awards and numerous Locus and Endeavour Award nominations, Dave Duncan is an acknowledged master of sword-and-sorcery adventure on par with George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. A sprawling epic with a colorful cast of royals, thieves, prostitutes, gods, warriors, dragons, assassins, merchants, and mages set against the backdrop of a volatile alternate Asia, Portal of a Thousand Worlds is a magnificent work of invention from one of the premier fantasists of our day.